• by Mike Bloxham , Op-Ed Contributor, March 28, 2007

A relatively short post this week, as I’m on the road and running between hotel rooms, meetings and airports (which in itself provides for a number of interesting televisual experiences, but that’s a subject for another post).

This week is about viewer involvement in programming and the rich potential for subversion that exists.  Having been weaned at the tender age of seven on the earliest episodes of “Monty Python” in the U.K. in 1969, I have to confess a deep-seated love of the subversive and that which pokes fun at the conventional wisdoms and practices of everyday life.

So, naturally, I find myself irresistibly drawn to http://www.votefortheworst.com (VFTW) -- a Web site entirely based on the notion that if enough people vote for the crappiest singer, then “American Idol” can be way more fun.  Interestingly, it’s a site that has developed something of a following -- especially since Howard Stern got behind it and encouraged people to join in the subversion of the core format of the show.

First established in 2004, the site’s owners are claiming some degree of success and make a habit of targeting campaigns of tactical voting aimed at blocking the progress of those they think the producers want to win, by elevating those who appear to be there for pure (and excruciating) entertainment value.

Of course, whatever the motivation to vote, every vote cast still generates revenue for the program’s stakeholders, and it all goes to increasing the program’s social currency (though you may define it as counter-currency in this case).

It also suggests that maybe there’s a market among these sorts of talent / reality shows for the versions that bring together the worst rather than the best of previous contestants (less “American Idol All-Stars” and more “American Idol No-Hopers”) -- probably not sustainable over a full series. But let’s face it, seeing the least talented people in the nation is a major reason for tuning into the audition rounds of the show.

If nothing else, VFTW is a great example of how a program can be extended by an audience in ways that the producers didn’t dream of, while still building an actively engaged community that quite probably wouldn’t be as engaged otherwise, thereby increasing the overall equity of the show.

Anyway, take a look at the site, have some fun and see if you can think of sites of a similar nature that other shows are crying out for but don’t yet have.